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MAR 11, 2020 1:30 PM PDT

PANEL: The Neuronal Mechanisms of Human Episodic Memory: a Multidisciplinary Consortium Utilizing Human Single-Neuron Recordings

Speakers
  • Adam Mamelak, MD

    Professor of Neurosurgery, Director of Epilepsy and Functional Neurosurgery and Co-director of the Pituitary Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
    BIOGRAPHY
  • Ueli Rutishauser, PhD

    Board of Governors Chair in Neuroscience, Director, Human Neurophysiology Research, Associate Professor, Neurosurgery, Neurology & Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
    BIOGRAPHY
  • Gabriel Kreiman, PhD

    Professor at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital and leads the Executive Function/Memory module in the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines
    BIOGRAPHY
  • Jie Zheng, PhD

    Research Fellow at Kreiman Lab, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
    BIOGRAPHY

Abstract

Episodic memories are essential for human cognition, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. We utilize the opportunity to record in-vivo from human single neurons simultaneously in multiple brain areas in patients undergoing treatment for drug resistant epilepsy to study the underlying mechanisms. Supported by the BRAIN initiative, we formed a consortium among four institutions (Cedars-Sinai/Caltech, Johns Hopkins, U Toronto, and Children’s/Harvard) to maximize the use of these rare and precious opportunities to further our understanding of human memory. In this panel talk, we will highlight different aspects of our work that has become possible due to this highly interdisciplinary group of experimental and computational scientists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, and ethics experts.

We are developing a circuit-level understanding of human memory by utilizing invasive in-vivo recordings together with behavior, focal electrical stimulation, and computational modeling. We are investigating a putative circuit for human recognition memory that is composed of specific functional types of cells in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and the medial frontal cortex (MFC). In the MTL, we are investigating the role of visually selective and memory selective cells, whereas in the MFC we are studying memory-choice cells that represent a putative readout of memories to support memory-based recognition and confidence decisions. Together, these results begin to provide a circuit-level understanding of human memory at a level of detail that is needed for the development of new treatments for memory disorders.